The present invention disclosed herein relates to a substrate treating apparatus, and more particularly, to a substrate treating apparatus for performing application, development and bake processes.
In general, an apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device forms a predetermined film on a substrate and forms the film into a pattern having electrical characteristics to manufacture a semiconductor device. The pattern is formed through sequential or iterative performance of unit processes such as film forming, photolithography, etching and cleaning.
Here, the photolithography process includes an application process for applying a photoresist film on a silicon substrate, an exposure process for selectively exposing the photoresist film using a mask on the substrate on which the photoresist film is formed, a development process for developing the exposed photoresist film to form a microcircuit pattern, and a bake process performed after each of the application process, the exposure process and the development process.
An apparatus for performing the photolithography process includes an additional exposure apparatus for the exposure process and an apparatus provided with an application treating region for the application process, a development treating region for the development process and a bake treating region for the bake process. In a photolithography apparatus for performing the application, development and bake processes, the application treating region and the development treating region are arranged in a double layer on one side of the photolithography apparatus and the bake treating region is arranged on a side opposite to the one side in order to improve the efficiency of substrate transport. Therefore, a robot for transporting a substrate is additionally installed on each layer.
However, such configuration is limited in the improvement of an operation rate of the apparatus. For example, one transport robot arranged on a layer for performing the development process performs seven steps of buffer—post exposure bake—cooling—development—hard bake—cooling—buffer. Therefore, the load on a robot arranged on one layer is too large, reducing the efficiency of production.